round-hat-and-sack-coat

Updated: May 13, 2025

There was no more round-hat-and-sack-coat business for him; he wore a frock and a high hat, and whatever else was rather like London than Cambridge; I do not know but drab gaiters sometimes added to the effect of a gentleman of the old school which he now produced upon the witness. Some fastidiousnesses showed themselves in him, which were not so surprising.

William Dean Howells - Literary Friends and Acquaintance; a Personal Retrospect of American Authorship

There was no more round-hat-and-sack-coat business for him; he wore a frock and a high hat, and whatever else was rather like London than Cambridge; I do not know but drab gaiters sometimes added to the effect of a gentleman of the old school which he now produced upon the witness. Some fastidiousnesses showed themselves in him, which were not so surprising.

William Dean Howells - Studies of Lowell (from Literary Friends and Acquaintance)